Republic of Korea publishes ETS cap

In an important step towards the planned launch of the Korean emissions trading system in January 2015, the Korean Ministry of Environment published a draft national allocation plan setting the aggregate amount of emissions permitted under the scheme at the end of May (press release). According to the plan, emissions under the Korean ETS are to be capped at 1.68 billion tCO2e for 2015-2017, making the system the second largest in the world after the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The cap is significantly below what experts project as participants’ business-as-usual emissions and covers about 500 companies from industry and the power sector. Participating entities will initially receive free allocation for 100% of their historic emissions over 2011-2013, a share that will decrease to 90% by the start of the third trading period in 2021. The government is currently holding stakeholder consultations on the draft allocation plan, which is scheduled for adoption by the cabinet before the end of the month.